Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
# 1846 ANDERSON James                                          2nd Light Horse / 11th Field Artillery
James Anderson was born at Coominya around 1893 to Robert and Elizabeth Anderson. He attended Atkinson’s Lagoon School and then worked on the family farm. When he was old enough, he joined the local Light Horse Troop at Esk as a part time trooper for three years.
James travelled to Enoggera to enlist on 14th September 1915. He stated his age as 22 years and occupation farmer. James named his mother, Elizabeth Anderson of Coominya as his next of kin. James was placed into the 13th draft of reinforcements for the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. The 13th draft was made up of young men from mainly rural areas like James but surprisingly there were no others from the Brisbane Valley districts, with the exception of Alex Goodwin from Harlin. The reinforcements trained in much the same drills that James would have been used to from his time with the Esk Troop.
In early January 1916, the 13th reinforcements boarded a train at Alderley Station for the journey to Wallangarra where they changed to a NSW gauge train for the remainder of the journey to Sydney. They embarked on the “Boonah” on 22nd January. The embarkation roll shows that James had allocated 4/- of his 5/- a day pay to his mother. After landing at Suez, the reinforcements made their way to the Light Horse Remounts Depot at Heliopolis on the outskirts of Cairo.
James and the reinforcements had arrived at a time of great reorganisation for the AIF which was to be expanded from two divisions to four. These four divisions were being prepared for an eventual deployment to the western front, with an accompanying allocation of transport and artillery. The British experience on the western front was that guns, big ones and lots of them, were necessary to open up opportunities for infantry. The newly provisioned divisions of the AIF would each have four brigades of artillery. Each brigade consisted of three batteries of 18 pounder field guns and one battery of 4.5” howitzers; a total of 16 guns. The guns were hitched to a limber carrying ammunition which was in turn pulled by teams of six horses harnessed in pairs with a driver riding each off side animal in the pair. In addition to the drivers, a gun crew of up to four gunners rode on the limber. The NCO in charge of the gun (bombardier) usually rode a horse and a general service wagon pulled by a team of four or six horses carried the crew’s baggage, gun and saddlery spares and ammunition. Such an arrangement called for men experienced with animals and the Light Horse reinforcements provided a ready pool. On 16th April 1916, James was transferred to the 11th Howitzer Battery of the 11th Field Artillery Brigade; part of the 4th Division AIF as a driver.
Mastering the harnessing and handling of teams of horses was a skill that required much practice and the 4th Division gunners worked hard in the Egyptian summer. The AIF had very few 18 pounders and no howitzers in Egypt and when the artillery brigades were despatched to France in June, many of the gunners had no fired a gun at all. James’ battery embarked at Alexandria on 1st June for the crossing of the Mediterranean to the French port of Marseilles.  From there, they travelled by train to the large British training and equipment depot at Etaples; where the gunners took possession of new 18 pounders and 4.5” howitzers, gun limbers, harness and wagons. Once all was in a rough semblance of order, the 11th FAB made its way by train to the northern sector of the western front near the city of Armentieres. Practice with the teams and guns began in earnest particularly for the howitzer battery whose crews had never handled the guns before.
Howitzers fired a 16 kilogram shell at a steep angle (maximum 45 degrees) at a slower velocity than the field guns. The steep angle of fire and reduced velocity meant that the shells could be lobbed down on a target while the 18 pounders could not raise the angle of fire above 25 degrees. The howitzer was heavier than the 18 pounder and teams were often light draft animals or mules.
The first major action for the 4th Division Artillery was at Fleurbaix in support of an attack by the Australian 5thDivision’s infantry and the 61st British Division on 19th/20th July 1916. Both divisions had no experience at all of trench warfare. The 4th and 5th Division Artillery were equally inexperienced but were nevertheless brought in to cut the enemy wire and then support the attack with a creeping barrage. The fire from the 18 pounders was incapable of destroying barbed wire and the inexperience of the gunners meant that during the creeping barrage, a number of rounds “dropped short” adding to the casualties being inflicted by the German artillery. The battle is more widely known as Fromelles. It was a rude awakening to the AIF as to the nature of the conflict; resulting in 5,500 casualties of whom 2,000 were killed or died of wounds.
The remining three AIF divisions were put into the battle of Pozieres in late July and early August, followed by Mouquet Farm. Millions of shells were fired during those six weeks by both Australian and British guns. In late 1916, the 4th Division artillery was called in to support attacks at Le Sars and Flers. Although there were no offensive operations during the winter of 1916/17, the Australian gunners continued to engage in artillery duels and counter battery fire. The spring of 1917 was a time for mass movement of men and equipment as British forces pursued a withdrawing enemy back to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. During an attack at Bullecourt in April 1917, the General in charge unwisely dispensed with the usual artillery barrages to be replaced by tanks. The tanks either got lost or broke down and the men from the 4th Division’s advance across snow covered ground in broad daylight were cut down by machine gun and artillery fire. Bullecourt was the end of the Somme campaign and the lesson learnt was that artillery was vital in any action.
Soon after the failure at Bullecourt, the AIF artillery had a brief respite being taken out of the line to perform some urgent repairs to guns and equipment. At that time, James was redesignated as a gunner, making him one of a howitzer gun crew. The first major action in the summer of 1917 was at Messines in June. This was the first of a series of battles which would be fought in Belgian Flanders that was known as 3rd Battle of Ypres or more commonly Passchendaele.
In preparation for the Messines attack, the General in charge had amassed over three and a half million shells to be fired in the week before the attack on 7th June. Many of those shells were howitzer high explosive rounds to be targeted on pillboxes and dugouts. On the morning of 7th June, 19 underground mines buried in tunnels under the German positions were fired simultaneously. As the smoke and dust cleared, the infantry rose up from the jumping off trenches and made their way across the broken ground. As usual, the 4th Division artillery was tasked with supporting the attack of the 4thDivision infantry battalions. The struggle at Messines went on for several weeks during which the gunners continued to pour high explosive and shrapnel into the battlefield. Around this time, both sides had developed a more sophisticated method for locating the gun positions of their opponents and for the first time, casualties among gun crews during counter battery fire began to increase.
From the beginning of September 1917, the 11th FAB was in action around Ouderdom between Ypres and Poperinghe. The Brigade war diary records a number of casualties on a daily basis. On 16th September 1917, Gunner James Anderson was wounded by a shell splinter, causing a compound fracture of his thigh. James was one of four casualties from that shell impact on the 11th Battery. He was taken to the 10th Casualty Clearing Station near Poperinghe where he died the following day, aged 24.
James was buried in the nearby Lijssenthoek Cemetery. His mother received a parcel of her son’s personal effects; a book, wallet, letters, photos and a ring. She was granted a pension of £1/-/- a fortnight. In the 1920s service medals were distributed to family of those who had perished. Elizabeth Anderson wrote to the authorities to advise that her husband had died in August 1921 and the Empire medal and Victory medal, along with a memorial plaque and scroll were sent to Elizabeth at Coominya. Elizabeth also chose the following inscription for James’ headstone: DEARLY BELOVED SON OF MR & MRS ROBERT ANDERSON OF COOMINYA, QUEENSLAND.